Prosecutor objects to judgeÂ?s claim

Editor's note: This series on St. Joseph County's judges, how they're chosen and the justice they mete out was first published in The Tribune and on southbendtribune.com in September 2006.

St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak took sharp exception to a judgeÂ?s claim that his office lets too many defendants off after they have violated their probation by committing new crimes.

In a recent Tribune interview, St. Joseph Superior Judge Jerome Frese said he places many nonviolent offenders on probation instead of prison because in prison, they receive little or no rehabilitation. On probation, Frese said, he has Â?controlÂ? over them. If they fail to do what they are supposed to do, he can hold the threat of prison over their heads, he said.

When individuals commit new crimes while on probation, DvorakÂ?s office files a petition to revoke probation, through which a defendant can be forced to serve a sentence the judge had initially suspended.

But DvorakÂ?s office too often dismisses the petition as part of a plea agreement on the new crime, Frese said. Theoretically, that would mean Dvorak is robbing Frese of the stick in his carrot-and-stick approach.

Frese noted he has authority to reject such plea agreements, but doing so would exacerbate the backlog in his court.

But Dvorak disputed the judgeÂ?s assertion.

Â?ItÂ?s misleading to suggest his hands are tied or something,Â? Dvorak said.

The prosecutor acknowledged that he often uses the petition to revoke probation as leverage in securing plea agreements on the new crimes.

Â?PTRs are almost a throw-away because weÂ?re securing a larger sentence on the new crime,Â? Dvorak said.

But if Frese is worried about defendants receiving too many breaks after violating probation, he simply needs to hand down longer prison terms on the new offenses, Dvorak said.

Â?When weÂ?ve got people getting probation on a second crime, itÂ?s an absurdity to say weÂ?re giving them a break by dismissing the PTR,Â? Dvorak said. Â?He could go all the way to the max on the second case, which he doesnÂ?t do. IÂ?m concerned if this looks like IÂ?m plea-bargaining away, because IÂ?m not.Â?

This story did not appear in the printed edition of the South Bend Tribune